President Donald Trump said in a meeting with CEOs on Monday that his administration would prioritize tax cuts for corporations and decreasing regulation in its first days.
Trump, speaking with CEOs including Kevin Plank of Under Armour, Elon Musk of Tesla, and Mark Fields of Ford, promised to "cut regulations by 75%, maybe more." Trump said regulations regarding worker safety would be "just as strong" and "just as protective of the people," but that current regulations "make it impossible to get anything built."
It is unclear whether Trump is seeking to cut the cost of regulations or their total number.
Trump also reiterated threats to impose a significant "border tax" on companies that move production outside of the US to other countries.
"If you go to another country and you decide that you're going to close and get rid of 2,000 people or 5,000 people ... we are going to be imposing a very major border tax on the product when it comes in," Trump said.
The move on trade also comes as Trump is expected to sign an executive order that would renegotiate the North American Free Trade Agreement, or NAFTA, and pull the US out of the Trans-Pacific Partnership.
He also reiterated a campaign promise to cut corporate taxes — and taxes for the middle class overall.
"We're going to be cutting taxes massively for both the middle class and for companies, and that's massively," Trump said. "We're trying to get it down to anywhere from 15 to 20%, and it's now 35%, but it's probably more 38% than it is 35%."
The current federal corporate tax rate is 35%, and it averages 39% for companies when state taxes are added.
The goal, according to Trump, is to "bring back manufacturing to our country." He said there would be breaks for companies that create products in the US.
"There will be advantages to companies that do indeed make their products here," Trump said.
Trump also said he plans to hold meetings with the CEOs on a quarterly basis or whenever they want to in order to address their concerns.
Following the meeting, the business leaders appeared outside of the White House with Andrew Liveris, CEO of Dow Chemical, speaking to reporters. Liveris said Trump was "engaged" in the meeting and also addressed concerns over a border tax.
"We did talk about the border tax quite a bit and we did talk about the sort of industries that might be helped or hurt by that," said Liveris. "Look, I would take the president at his word here, he's not going to do anything to harm competitiveness, he's actually going to make us all more competitive."
Liveris also said that the business leaders were going to come back in 30 days with a plan to help to US manufacturing sector.
Here is the full list of executives present for the meeting:
- Michael Dell, Dell Technologies
- Jeff Fettig, Whirlpool
- Mark Fields, Ford
- Alex Gorsky, Johnson & Johnson
- Marillyn Hewson, Lockheed Martin
- Klaus Kleinfeld, Arconic
- Andrew Liveris, Dow Chemical
- Mario Longhi, US Steel
- Elon Musk, SpaceX and Tesla
- Kevin Plank, Under Armour
- Mark Sutton, International Paper
- Wendell Weeks, Corning
Check out Trump's full remarks:
“We want to start making our products again”: President Trump meets with business leaders https://t.co/156XqQnMBS https://t.co/ne5efhVnyE
— CNN (@CNN) January 23, 2017
And Liveris' statement:
JUST IN: Business leaders, after meeting President Trump, say their conversation focused on taxes, regulations & trade. pic.twitter.com/j2SWAQP9aN
— CNBC Now (@CNBCnow) January 23, 2017
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